MOTHER TO SON By Langston Hughes PRESENTATION DONE BY IAN BENZ

BIO Born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri He attended Columbia University but left after one year to travel Being an African American growing up in the early 1900s, him and his family experienced racism, discrimination and slavery harshly, he has overcome this terror and has accomplished great things. He wrote many poems and became one of the most profound writers in his time Hughes wrote “Mother to Son” not only as the words of encouragement of a mother to a son, but also to let people know the difficulties that his kind have gone through and that they were not alone in the struggles

MOTHER TO SON Well, son, I'll tell you:Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it, And splinters,And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor --Bare.But all the timeI'se been a-climbin' on,And reachin' landin's,And turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light.So boy, don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the steps Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't you fall now --For I'se still goin', honey,I'se still climbin',And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Theme/ meaning In this poem, James Mercer Langston Hughes is trying to portray that along with the fact that the mother in this poem is trying to tell her son to stay optimistic and that life has its difficulties and as long as you don’t give up, this poem also is an inspiration to a community rather than to a son. The community as a whole has been suffering through all of the difficulties and what the poem is saying is that everyone has felt the struggles and that they can all overcome it together, they are not alone. Life is difficult but many are going through the same thing, you just have to believe.

Tone “Mother to Son” brings a happy/optimistic tone to the readers eyes. Even though the main topic of the poem is how the mother has endured tough times and says how her son will go through tough times, she talks about how you can overcome these obstacles. She tells her son to never give up, which gives hope to the readers.

Figurative language/Rhyme scheme There is actually no rhyme scheme in this piece, this is more of a story than a poem with a meaning and a theme, rather than the story changing, this is all on one topic. There is some figurative language in this story, he said “life for me aint been no crystal stair” which portrays that the mothers life has been rough, she also uses some examples of figurative language saying that her life has had some tacks in it, splinters and brought up boards. That explains that her life has been painful and very hard. She also states that she was in the complete dark where there is no hope. There is one piece of repetition which was “Life for me aint been no crystal stair”.

CItation WriteWork contributors. "Mother to Son by Langston Hughes" WriteWork.com. WriteWork.com, 16 March, 2004. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.